Virginia Gilbert

Author's Bio

I have had the unique experience of serving in the Peace Corps in Korea and of having taught English in Iran. I was evacuated from Iran during the 1978-79 Islamic Revolution. The movie, "Argo," greatly mirrored some of my own experiences in Iran. I also travelled through Afghanistan just before the 1978 Communist overthrow of the Afghani government.
Selected readings: Four AWP Conferences, four South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conferences; three Southern Festival of Books; Emerald Coast Writers' Conference; Chicago Harold Washington Main Library; The Barbican Library, London, England; Writer in Resident at Lakenheath American Middle School, Ely, England; Peace Corps Conferences; Shakespear and Co., Paris, France; Motlow College Writers' Festival; Twentieht Century Literature Conference; Poetry Society of America's Midwest Regional Conference; Alabama Public Television; Midwest Modern Language Association Conference; others.

Publications and Prizes

Book

That Other Brightness

(Black Star Press,

1996)

The Earth Above

(Catamount Press,

1993)

Greatest Hits

(Pudding House Publications,

2004)

New Voices in American Poetry

(Winthrop Press,

1973)

Anthology

Claiming the Spirit Within

(Beacon Press,

1996)

I Hear My Sisters Saying

(T.Y. Crowell,

1976)

Ordinary and Sacred as Blood

(River's Edge Publishing Co.,

1999)

Whatever Remembers Us

(Negative Capability Press,

2007)

Journal

Prairie Schooner

2015)

Mss.

2015)

PSA Poetry Review

2015)

North American Review

2015)

New York Quarterly

2015)

Poetry Now

2015)

Southern Poetry Review

2015)

Crazyhorse

2015)

Beloit Poetry Journal

2015)

Prizes:

Awards: 2009-10 Alabama State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant for Literature; 2006 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Alumni Achievement Award; 2003 nomination and selection of chapbook for Pudding House "Greatest Hits" series; 2001 Alabama Poet of the Year; 1998 First Place, Alabama State Poetry Society Slam Competition; 1997-98 Alabama Council on the Humanities Speakers' Bureau Presenter on the topic; "Transformation of a State Through Poetry"; 1995 Nomination for Alabama State Poetry Society's Book of the Year; 1993 Hays Fulbright Scholar to the People's Republic of China; 1992 First Place, Sakura Festival Haiku Contest; 1990 Second Place, Hackney Literary Award; 1990-91 Faculty Development Grant, Alabama A & M University; 1984-87 Fellowship in Creative Writing-University of Nebraska-Lincoln; 1976 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship-Poetry; 1965-69 Harlan Award, Iowa Wesleyan College; Finalist, Pitt Poetry Series and Chowder River Review chapbook contests; others.